Ex-official: State, ESU ignored warnings of sex abuse allegations

Sunday

Mar 15, 2009 at 12:01 AM

Officials ignored warnings that could have protected students and prevented a lawsuit charging sex abuse at East Stroudsburg University, says a former administrator with the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE).

DAN BERRETT

Officials ignored warnings that could have protected students and prevented a lawsuit charging sex abuse at East Stroudsburg University, says a former administrator with the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE).

"I knew something like this was going to happen," said Charmaine Clowney, former assistant vice chancellor for diversity and multicultural affairs. She held that job for six years before resigning last July.

"This could have been prevented," she said.

The state system doesn't track complaints at schools, which leaves too much power in the hands of campus presidents, Clowney said.

She also described ESU as the worst among the 14 state universities in safeguarding students and ensuring compliance with federal anti-discrimination laws.

ESU's sexual harassment policies do not discourage personal relationships between administrators and students or supervisors and employees, as some other PASSHE schools do.

Six current and former ESU students allege that a former school vice president traded money and jobs for attempts at sexual intimacy and that other top university officials covered it up. A civil lawsuit was filed on Feb. 13 by a former federal prosecutor now in private practice.

Clowney, who now works in the private sector, was hired in 2002 as director of diversity for the state system, a position in which she was tasked initially with awarding grants and promoting diversity.

As an attorney with two decades of experience in enforcing equal protection law on college campuses, Clowney said she tried to push for more vigorous compliance with federal law. She spoke at national conferences and won awards during her tenure at PASSHE. In 2006, she was promoted to assistant vice chancellor.

Clowney said she warned ESU and her superiors at PASSHE about the dangers of inconsistent policies across the system, lack of state oversight and lax enforcement at ESU in particular — well before the suit was filed. Instead of prompting corrective action, her efforts either went unheeded or were, at times, punished, she said.

Clowney rejected the suggestion that she is a disgruntled ex-employee. "I have no ax to grind other than them not looking out for students," she said.

"(Executive Vice Chancellor Peter) Garland and (former Chancellor Judy) Hample clearly did not want an aggressive compliance program. That's one of the reasons I left," Clowney added. "The PASSHE system treated EEO (equal employment opportunity) like it's a token."

EEO encompasses a range of federal anti-discrimination laws that, on college campuses, protect students and staff from sexual, racial and gender discrimination. Organizations such as ESU and PASSHE, which receive federal money, must comply with these laws.

PASSHE disputed Clowney's characterization, and defended its actions.

"I think we, both individually on the campuses and collectively in the system, follow these things very seriously when specific charges come forward on campus, whether they relate to sexual harassment, diversity issues, gender discrimination, all of those kinds of things," Garland said.

Hample also defended PASSHE's record under her leadership. "Be assured that both Executive Vice Chancellor Garland and I always considered EEO compliance to be a serious issue at all 14 institutions and the chancellor's office," she said in an e-mail after being contacted at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Va., where she is president.

A report on the allegations related to the ESU lawsuit, which has been conducted over nine months by outside investigators on behalf of PASSHE and the Governor's Office of General Counsel, is due to be completed in the next few days.

Neither its results nor its recommendations will be made public, due to the lawsuit and because it is considered an attorney work product, PASSHE has said.

"What the system did know was that the policies and procedures weren't up to snuff," Clowney said. "And they provided no oversight to the colleges in the system."

PASSHE has no program to track or oversee complaints like the one investigated internally by ESU around August 2007. A student, referred to in the civil lawsuit as F.B., filed a complaint of sexual harassment against Isaac Sanders, a former vice president for advancement and executive director of the ESU Foundation. The student worked for Sanders.

The suit claims that the young man, a freshman at the time of the alleged abuse, received unsolicited gifts and grants from Sanders, followed by attempted genital groping. The suit also contends that ESU's initial investigation, and two subsequent probes were "flawed, faulty, biased and incomplete," with relevant information kept from the person who was in charge of examining the allegations.

Clowney said she suggested in 2006 to Garland, who was her supervisor, and to Hample that PASSHE monitor centrally all discrimination complaints that are made on the system's campuses.

"It made sense from a risk management or a financial perspective — if we saw a lot of complaints we could ask, 'Why are you costing the system so much money?'" Clowney said.

Clowney said she wanted to go a step further, proposing that complaints become part of the state system's measurement of university performance. That would mean that universities would be rewarded financially for this aspect of their campus climate. Currently, Pennsylvania's performance-based criteria for diversity measure how many students and staff of color are represented on campus.

Hample said in an e-mail that, "Ms. Clowney never discussed with me ESU's investigatory procedures and policies nor her proposal about measuring EEO complaints."

But Garland said that leaders at PASSHE discussed Clowney's ideas; they simply rejected them.

"That's not really appropriate for that kind of consideration," he said after attending a meeting of the ESU Senate on Monday. Garland said other measures related to the performance of students, including retention and graduation, were more suitable to track and attach performance-related funding to.

It is unclear how many state systems of higher education nationally do tie financial rewards to compliance with these federal laws, nor how many track complaints on their member campuses.

One that does is Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, a system of seven four-year institutions and 25 community colleges serving 250,000 students. The system reviews complaints about once each year, said spokeswoman Melinda Voss.

"We want to take a look at what's happening out there on our campuses," Voss said. "It makes sense to see the overall picture and the overall trend."

Garland said Monday that PASSHE may reconsider this aspect of its oversight.

"We haven't looked at that specifically," he said. "It's certainly a reasonable thing to put on the table."

Universities under PASSHE develop their own sexual harassment policies and investigate complaints.

"Because of the decentralized system we have, typically the vast bulk of that activity happens on the campuses," Garland said. "We have board policies on these issues that each of the campuses follows. We have staff to deal with these issues, so it's something we definitely take seriously."

All of the policies must comply with state and federal laws, said Kenn Marshall, state system spokesman. But they vary, with some schools adopting a more rigorous set of rules than others.

Clowney said the situation was too inconsistent, with universities attaching different degrees of importance to compliance.

"The presidents have too much power over a legal issue," she said.

Sheldon Steinbach, who served for 37 years as vice president and general counsel for the American Council on Education, called the decision to maintain separate policies within the same state system "an interesting question."

"You figure it'd be easier to have a statewide policy in which all 14 schools would be obliged to follow rather than have a patchwork accumulation," Steinbach said, "some of which may be excessive and others of which may be on the weak side."

ESU's was weak, Clowney said .

"ESU has the worst EEO compliance policy in the entire system — bar none," she said.

ESU does not forbid consensual relationships between staff and students, or between supervisors and employees. Its policy recognizes the needs for "high ethical standards" in consensual relationships, and leaves the matter to be addressed in workshops.

The result of ESU's policy is "a sexually charged environment" on campus, according to the lawsuit filed last month.

But West Chester and Millersville universities — part of the state system — take a tougher stand on sexual harassment, especially consensual relationships.

West Chester's policy observes that being a supervisor or adviser casts doubt on whether an intimate relationship with a subordinate or student can be considered consensual. "The status of a romantic or sexual relationship between such parties is suspect even when both parties have given voluntary consent," the policy reads.

Millersville University deems relationships between students and faculty, coaches or administrators to be "inappropriate and unethical." It also holds top administrators responsible for following up on allegations.

Clowney said she warned her superiors about problems at ESU — both its lax policies and her concerns with its staff.

In particular, she worried about the qualifications of ESU's social equity director, Victoria Sanders (no relation to Isaac Sanders). Victoria Sanders is an associate vice president, assistant to ESU President Robert Dillman, and is named as a defendant in the civil lawsuit.

Social equity directors in PASSHE advise university presidents on equity policies and equal employment opportunity.

They are often responsible for assigning investigations, and assuring compliance with state and federal laws, such as Title VI, VII and IX, according to several experts.

"These laws are very complex, and compliance is mandatory," said Andy Brantley, president and chief executive officer of the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources in Knoxville, Tenn. "And these policies have to be handled through a central resource, so that this central resource is aware of all complaints."

As ESU's central resource, Victoria Sanders became social equity director after serving in two jobs in the admissions office, her resume says. Some of her peers who hold the same position at other system universities have experience in the law, human resources or conducting investigations, which some experts say is far more desirable.

"It would be highly advisable to have an individual with a law background in order to avoid procedural and other minor legal mistakes, and someone with the requisite degree could prevent that," said Steinbach, formerly of the American Council on Education, which represents more than 1,800 colleges and universities.

"People's livelihood and personal security are at stake," Steinbach said. "You'd like to have an investigation conducted with complete due process."

Clowney also said she was perturbed by statements that she heard Victoria Sanders make twice. According to Clowney, Victoria Sanders said that the purpose of EEO policy was to protect faculty and administration from being subjected to student complaints.

Clowney contends that Victoria Sanders explained to her that ESU administration wanted to prevent Dillman from receiving another vote of no confidence from the faculty. He received two such votes, the last in 2006. Keeping faculty and administration free from complaints was a way to prevent that, Clowney said of Victoria Sanders.

The civil lawsuit alleges that evidence produced against Isaac Sanders during internal probes was disregarded, and that tapes made during interviews were lost or destroyed.

Victoria Sanders could not be reached for comment.

Clowney said she expressed concerns about ESU to top officials at PASSHE. She said she raised the issue with Andrew Lehman, who serves as counsel for PASSHE, but is technically a member of the Governor's Office of General Counsel.

Clowney said Lehman agreed with her, but said it would take a major lawsuit for ESU to make these changes.

PASSHE will not address the "veracity of Ms. Clowney's comments," according to Marshall.

Instead of heeding her concerns, Clowney said PASSHE leaders marginalized her. She alleges that she was verbally reprimanded by Garland, systematically cut out of discussions and bypassed on matters that were her responsibility under federal law. Garland squelched an effort to audit EEO policies of all state system schools, Clowney said.

Clowney provided the Pocono Record with copies of e-mails and memos alleging that her federally mandated position had been "excluded, obstructed and marginalized" over time.

"There is the 'illusion of inclusion,'" she wrote in a November 2007 memo to PASSHE's board, climaxing more than seven months of failed attempts to address her differences with Garland.

The state system has not filled Clowney's job since she left last year.

Spokesman Marshall said that Clowney's compliance responsibilities had been assigned to staff in student and academic affairs, and that an advertisement for her replacement will soon be placed. "We haven't turned away from it and we think it's a vital position," Marshall said.

Clowney noted that PASSHE hired a vice chancellor for external relations, saying the move shows more concern for public appearances than the system's responsibility to students. But Marshall said the new staffer has been a benefit by working with the state's Congressional delegation on the recent federal stimulus package.

PASSHE would not respond to Clowney's allegations about Garland and about being marginalized.

PASSHE said it responded quickly to the ESU scandal once officials learned more than one student claimed harassment by Isaac Sanders.

The Pocono Record published an account in June of a student filing a complaint with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission against an unnamed ESU administrator. Two additional students came forward soon after with complaints against Isaac Sanders.

John Cavanaugh became chancellor of PASSHE on July 1, and the system hired an outside firm to investigate.

"I think we reacted very quickly when the additional students came forward," Marshall said.

But there are concerns about the impartiality of the state's probe. Some witnesses who were interviewed as part of that investigation — which resulted in Isaac Sanders' firing in October — complained privately that they were asked to deliver testimony in a conference room next to Dillman's office, rather than at a neutral location.

There's also the question of whether state officials knew earlier than July that there were multiple alleged victims of sexual harassment. A series of anonymous letters, mentioned in the lawsuit, reportedly went to Dillman, members of the Council of Trustees, and to others in the fall of 2007.

Filled with detailed inside knowledge of the Office of Advancement and the ESU Foundation, the letters urged action by Dillman against Isaac Sanders and his director of major gifts, Vincent Dent. They alleged misuse of credit cards by Dent and sexual predation by Sanders, among other charges.

"As you now no doubt know, this young man was one of many," the letter, dated Nov. 1, 2007, stated, referring to F.B. "You can easily find the others (another group on campus has identified four students so far)."

After ESU officials failed to act, the letters also went to state system Chancellor Judy Hample by February 2008, according to sources knowledgeable about the letters. The Pocono Record received the letters in May.

Both Hample and Garland denied receiving them.

"I'm not aware of any anonymous letters and never saw them, to my knowledge," Garland said. "We're not even sure (Hample) ever received them."

Clowney, who then still worked for PASSHE, said she never received the letters, either. But, after reviewing them recently, she called them "unbelievable" and said she was "floored" by their content.

"If I had known about those letters, I would have gone straight to the Board (of Governors)," she said. The system and Hample, if they did receive them, "had a duty under Title VI to give those letters to me and to the board," Clowney said.

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